I upload my digital photos to iPhoto. I get film processed and burned to cd (no prints). Then I upload whatever is worthy, and then some, to flickr. It’s great. Except for one thing. The proof sheet (and I mean the 8×10 kind on real photo paper) is not part of the experience anymore.

On the left is a Photoshop-generated proof sheet from photos shot on film with my Nikon F3. Not bad. But it lacks the film type and frame number information. It just looks like a sad substitute for a REAL proof sheet. I’m sure there’s a program out there that would generate a more realistic pfoof sheet using a portion of the EXIF data or custom fields. I just haven’t found it yet. In fact I haven’t even looked for it, choosing to rant first.

On the right is a proof sheet from digital photos that I made by hand. I like the type slightly better than the one made with Photoshop.
But it’s still not quite there yet. But it still provides a bit of that proof sheet experience to see all the photos small in one place on a black background. I guess the next step is representing the grease-pencil circles of the best frames. I’ll keep at it.

My Nikon F3 is the best camera ever. In fact it’s one of those things that has achieved the ststus of family member. After all it’s been through during 20 years of shooting it’s still solid and it’s never let me down. I’ve carried it up mountains, around cities, to Stockholm, London, across the USA on a train trip and many road trips, in rain and cold, and it’s been dropped and smashed into numerous hard surfaces and objects. It’s never been my only camera, but always my favorite. Its current companion is an even older silver Nikon FM (that actually has a bunch of problems and may become a hood ornament on my car).

Back in the day (like on that train trip) I’d carry one Nikon with Tri-X black and white film (the F3) and another with color slide film of some kind (for a long time it was a Nikon FA, which had a great metering system that worked well with the less-forgiving exposure range of slide film), and 24mm, 50mm, and 105mm lenses. So basically I’d be ready for just about anything.

I sold the FA in maybe 1999, when it was still worth something and bought a Nikon F5. I have to say I loved the F5 and the auto-focus with a 55mm macro lens was a real luxury. Many good shots with the Nikon F5, but I sold it in about 2002, feeling that since I was not a professional photographer it was hard to justify tying up that much money in cameras, and it funded a Mac laptop, which WAS a professionally-justifiable expenditure.

I’m never happier (camera or photo-experience-wise) than when shooting with the old F3. (OK, Polaroids are a close second). These days I shoot more digital than anything now. But I still feel there’s nothing like shooting a roll of film. And there’s nothing like the discipline of having to shoot with the knowledge that every time you press the shutter release you’re spending 50¢ and you may only have 24 or 36 frames to work with and you won’t see the results for a few hours or days. Yes. I like the demands of film. It sharpens your focus. (I know…pun, etc.) But it really does.

Aside from the experience of working whit film, it’s the user experience of the Nikon F3 that I really treasure. The weight, the layout of the controls, the feel. The experience of pressing that shutter release when the motor drive is connected. It’s thrilling every time. There’s a visceral and mechanical quality that you don’t get even with a top-of-the-line Nikon digital SLR. Something that says, “I am a machine, you are in control, but don’t take me for granted.”

I have film cameras, I have digital cameras, but the camera I find myself using most often and spontaneously is the one in my cell phone. The quality is finally good enough for snapshots. (See the image of the RR sign).

Just a few years ago, the only option if you wanted an immediately-available photo was the Polaroid and the trade-off on quality for instant gratification was acceptable. Now cell phones fill that role. I don’t really care that the resolution is inferior to an 8-megapixel Nikon or Canon as long as I get the image in the moment.

And I did just hear that there is technology which will enable printing photos from cell phones…not sure if that means an actual little printer with the phone…that sounds way too cool, but I hope so.

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that our treasured Polaroid cameras be discarded or shelved, never to be used again. I will always enjoy shooting Polaroid. I just see their value now as the unique feel of the image they produce and the somewhat nostalgic photographic experience.

I snapped this photo of a bridge over the Mississippi River in August 2006, going east on I-70. I like the way the shapes all work together although, at the time, I did not consciously think about it. It was just an intuitive thing. To me it is the perfect road trip photo. Spontaneous, a little blurry from the motion of the car and just a slice of what was going by at the moment. The original was a color, digital photo, but I felt black and white really captured the feeling better.